Friday, February 11, 2011

Bane on paper and screen

COMIC BOOKS

Bane's story begins long before he was even born. It begins with the introduction of a formula called Venom.

Venom was introduced in Legends of the Dark Knight #16 as a highly addictive, strength enhancing drug which could be taken either in pills or, in further stages of development, through injections and then directly into brain through surgery. After taking only one pill Batman's strength was boosted so much that he could easily lift the weight that has previously snapped his muscle.

After just weeks of taking the pills, he was able to take out a big thug with one hand who had previously beaten him up, and even rip a heater off the wall with his bare hands. The venom however, had profound impact on his psyche, and his behavior wasn't that far from the Joker's.

He repeatedly offended Alfred and even agreed to kill Gordon in order to get the pills.

After a month of isolation and pain, Batman gets off the pills and follows it's designers, Randolph Porter and his partner General Slaycroft to Santa Prisca. There, Porter performs further experiments with Venom on General's weak and thin son, Tim. Tim gets regular injections of a much stronger concentrate of Venom, and the eventually undergoes a surgery after which he turns into a giant bulletproof monster, a part of the venom fed supersoldier squad

Slaycroft gets killed and Porter dies in a hospital from withdrawal from his own relaxing pills that he designed for himself. One could think that the formula died with Porter, however he did manage to record everything he knew on tape...

An unnamed child referred to as Nino was born in prison in Pena Duro, sentenced to life for his father's crimes. Nino was watched over by his innocent mother and raised as well as possible under the conditions, isolated form the rest of the prisoners. He was half Puerto Rican since his mother was a native and his father, as later revealed, was Batman's villain King Snake, most known from the first Robin series.

His story is told through the eyes of Zombie, prisoner who was doing janitor service in Pena Duro and who watched over the boy whenever he could, watching him grow up. After his mother dies of sickness, Nino is placed among other criminals and it doesn't take long for others to harass him. One of the prisoners, Trogg, saves the child, but during a prison fight Nino falls over the railing and falls into coma. While in the coma, he has a vision and is visited by his future incarnation who tells him that if he will conquer fear, he can have anything. Note that when talking about fear, Nino sees a bat.

The child that wakes up after the coma is no longer Nino, and earns his name, Bane, the very same night he gets back to his cell by slicing his fellow prisoner to pieces.

For this and offending the Warden he is sent to isolation for years to die, but he survives and learns meditation and survival skills instead.

However, even in the isolation his dreams are haunted by bats

When he gets released, he is fearless and earns every prison fight, along with respect for surviving long years in isolation. His goal and obsession was to become what he saw in his dream, and he tirelessly honed his physical and mental skills. He was doing 1000 push ups and 1000 sit ups each day and read every book that was available in prison library. Learned many different skills from them and then he got Trogg, Zombie and Bird to smuggle him more books everytime new shipment for black market arrived.

Then, his life took another turn when Bird mentioned Gotham City and Batman. From this day, Bane's new obsession was born - to defeat Batman and rule Gotham. Even thought Bane didn't want to admit it to himself even, Batman was his biggest fear and became the main character of his nightmares, haunting his dreams every night.

After Bane kills 30 prisoners with his bare hands at once, he is yet again send to isolation, but gets out very soon to be a Guinea pig for certain experiments, with a new supersoldier formula that was created and based of Venom...

Bane as the only one survives days of injection treatment and then, as his last step of evolution, undergoes a surgery after which he looks exactly like he did in his epiphany. The surgery also implanted holes in his skull so he can feed his brain with venom directly.

Bane slows down his vital signs to the point where they become unreadable, and thus escapes Pena Duro. He goes back for Trogg, Zombie and Bird and the Warden who he then throws to sharks, but in the meantime kills a shark with his bare hands.

They then depart to Gotham where Zombie designs a device and mask which will allow Bane to pump venom into his brain and body at any given time. It was also Zombie who memorized the formula for Venom and was making it for Bane.

Bane tries to face Batman right away but quickly decides that in order to beat Batman, he must wear him out physically and psychologically, and must observe him and learn him thoroughly, and thus Knightfall begins. It is important to know that before he meets Batman, he gets very anxious and fearful, proving yet again that Batman is a personification of his fear

Bane observes Batman's action for months, and is shown to master almost every possible skill. Just by Batman's movement alone, he could tell that Batman is sick (he developed an Epstein-Barr syndrome) and could easily tell when Jean Paul Valley was in Batman's suit impersonating him. Also, just by movement alone he could tell that Bruce Wayne is Batman

For months, Bane was aiding Batman's villains and observing the fight, sometimes even saving Batman's life. He was shown as a great tactical thinker and planner, and eventually decided and planned to release all the inmates of Arkham and armed them. Bane's sick obsession with Batman became evident even for his henchmen. He also wanted to face the physically challenging villains like Killer Croc himself, and he defeated Croc with ease breaking both of his arms. It's important to note that when Venom goes through Bane's body, he pumps up like a balloon

When the time has come, Bane faced the sick and weak batman and broke his back, confining him to a wheelchair for a long time, and taking over Gotham

Bane ruled Gotham for some time until the new Batman, Jean Paul Valley decided to take him down despite
Bruce Wayne's reservations.

Valley was a much more brutal Batman and much more armored and equipped. The first time he managed to hurt Bane but got pretty beaten up. The second time he went back for Bane was in full, newly designed armor. Combination of skills, equipment and Bane's weakness - which was an addiction to venom, contributed to Bane's fall.

Bane was placed in Blackgate prison and didn't return for a very long time, until Bruce Wayne returned as Batman, which fueled his fear and nightmares. It was yet another hint at Bane's telepathic skills. There was no way he or anyone for that matter could know that Bruce is ready to take the cape again.

In Blackgate Bane had to fight with the withdrawal from Venom. After he stabbed a prisoner in the eye he was sentenced to six months of isolation. That's where he fought his toughest battle yet

Getting off Venom had a profound effect on Bane. He was a changed man not only physically, but mentally as well. He no longer wanted to rule Gotham and no longer wanted to kill and hated Batman. He now realized that it was Venom who was poisoning his mind before.

He hates Venom now and wants to fight it and destroy it completely. Bane becomes an antihero. He breaks out of the prison and traces and fights off the gang who is distributing a drug that is derived from Venom. He actually teams up with Batman to get rid of the drug ring together

Bane even goes back to Santa Prisca to kill all the doctors that turned him into a Venom monster and destroys all the notes. For cleaning up the country from the drug, Bane is announced a National Hero.
After winning the war on Venom Bane becomes obsessed with finding his father's identity, but while on his search he meets and teams up with Ra's Al Ghul who choses Bane as the heir to his throne and a man for his daughter Talia

Bane comes back to Gotham and faces Batman one more time. This time however, the healthy and fit Batman wins the fight

The Bane and Ra's teamup didn't last long however, and very soon after it was Bane who was fighting against Ra's. Bane took out the entire League of Assasins and even went on a mission to destroy every one of the Lazarus pits.
Bane continued his quest in finding his father and then mistakenly thinks that Thomas Wayne was his father. He convinces Bruce about the fact and they both teamup again.
Soon after they both find out that Thomas Wayne wasn't Bane's father and Batman decides to help Bane in his continuous search. Bane's father is revealed to be King Snake, one of Batman's villains, but Bane doesn't switch sides this time around but instead saves Batman's life and helps him foil Snake's plans.

Bane soon joins a group of other antiheroes called Secret Six. While Bane fights thugs and bad guys and is off the Venom for so long, the one thing that didn't change is his temper and the use of extensive, gruesome violence. Bane has been shown to have a peculiar habit of ripping people's hands off and beating them up with them

Bane then went into a father/daughter relationship with a lesbian girl named Scandal Savage. She helped him out and showed a great care when Bane started having rough nights after a hunger for Venom returned. He was caring for Savage like for a daughter and would mercilessly kill anyone who would even look at her in a wrong way.

Even without venom Bane is always presented as an incredibly strong man, being able to kill large groups of armed men, break through walls and withstand bullet shots. In some ways he is even stronger because the addiction is gone. Being clean of Venom he defeated Azrael (Jean Paul Valley) very easily

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B A T M A N & R O B I N

Joel Schumacher:We use him in this film as Uma's pitbull, I mean she can't just kiss everyone to death in Gotham City, It's a lot of people to kiss and so sometimes she just needs someone to break down the wall (Anthology)

Bane was one of the three villains in Batman & Robin, although he was completely ignored by media. 'Three good guys seemed to mean three bad guys, including Mr. Freeze, Poison Ivy and virtually unpublicized Bane', once Batman's most merciless menace but here merely muscle for Ivy' (Batman: The Complete History). Few fans and most of the general public weren't even aware that Bane was going to be in the movie. Promotional posters were made for each hero and villain, but none for Bane. Bane was also almost never mentioned in the media and articles, which only talked about the movie having two villains, Mr. Freeze and Poison Ivy. However, Bane did have a separate photo session, in which he was photographed with Ivy and solo, and did appear on one promotional poster titled "Villains" which featured all 3 villains of Batman & Robin.

Most of the characters got changed or adjusted to the story during the translation from comic to screen in every movie featuring Batman, but Bane underwent the most drastic metamorphosis and became pretty much an opposite of what he was in the comic books. In the movie, Bane was an illiterate, growling bodyguard for Poison Ivy and sometimes repeated the last word of Ivy's sentence.

Paul Dini:We have seen the criminal masterminds who match Batman with combination of physical might and cleverness, and I think [on Batman & Robin] they wanted to go the other way with Bane (Anthology)

Typically for the motion picture stories of Batman, his story/origins were tied up with another character, in this instance it was Poison Ivy, whose experiments with plants helped in creating Venom - a supersoldier formula constructed by Jason Woodrue (in the comics known as Floronic Man, Atom's villain).

Woodrue uses the experiment on Antonio Diego, a convict who, when injected with Venom directly into his brain, literally inflates like a balloon changing into a loyal supersoldier - that portrayal is more so based on Tim Slaycroft rather than Bane.

Bane was played by Jeep Swenson, a professional wrestler who has passed away since. His entire body was covered in makeup, showing how Venom affects his body and spreads in his veins

Bane's last name, Diego, tells us that just like his comic counterpart he is at least partially Puerto Rican. The Diego incarnation of Bane was played by Michael Reid MacKay

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THE DARK KNIGHT RISES

Christopher Nolan:He's a great sort of movie monster, but with an incredible brain, and that was a side of him that hadn't been tapped before. Because the stories from the comics are very epic and very evocative–very much in the way that Bruce Wayne's origin story is epic and evocative. We were looking to really parallel that with our choice of villain. So he is a worthy adversary. (Empire Mag Jan. 2012)

Tim Slaycroft is mentioned in the beginning of the article, he was one of the first and the strongest supersoldiers created with the help of Venom, but he was also given hypnosis drugs thanks to which he was like a programmed robot that did not speak and only faithfully followed orders

Well the idiot Akiva Goldsman certainly did a foul up on B&R film by adding the stupid puns as well as mess up Bane's background by making him a mindless brute instead of intellectual being like in the comics...

Bane in his "dream" with the Bat looks like Conan. I never knew the character used to have a mane!

Anyways, another excellent article, but you should have written for the TAS version too.

And now that I think of it... you articles about the screen vs. comic depictions of characters could also include the Arkham Asylum series of games. Of course, the Bane seen in AA was a bit like that from B&R.

Batman: Arkham Asylum / Arkham City is the next best mythos after the "Nolan-verse" ... it combines the nice dark, gothic visual elements of the "Burton-verse" but keeps the more grounded and believable character elements of the B:TAS and Nolan-verse. I agree he should do some articles or blogs about the Arkham game universe.

Anyway, super pumped for the character of Bane. The dark reflection of Bruce Wayne. I'm digging Batman's three greatest threats in the movies being a) purpose being lost (Begins) b) Joker ... a man who was a threat to others, an insane, mass murdering clown who fought Batman with his ideology. and now c) Bane ... a man who is a threat to Batman, a focused, driven dark reflection of Bruce. And the one villain that can dominate Batman physically.

Which is saying something considering Batman has been so dominant of others physically in the Nolan movies. You don't see Batman getting beat by random thugs ala B89 and Returns. Batman in the Nolan movies is really skilled. So seeing someone get the best of him will be BRUTAL and impactful on the audience.

I wanna hear how Schumacher will comment on Bane. ShoeMaker always dismissed Batman as just a comic book movie and that was his excuse for not taking it seriously. Well ShoeMaker, someone did take a "comic book movie" seriously and people love it. And Im talking adults not kids

Bane is mostly a D-list Bat-villain, after he broke the Batman's back he became a joke soon after when he got his ass kicked by a guy in a mechanical Bat-suit: Jean Paul Valley. Now he's been fading away in obscurity ever since, the BTAS version of him is his best incarnation and is actually better than his comics version.

As a character, Bane doesn't really have a lot of source material to draw from in the comics, so I'm really hoping Nolan changes Bane enough to make him a better character, like Paul Dini did with Mr. Freeze in BTAS.

Bane isnt a D villain. he just isnt known cause he wasnt developed decades ago like other Batman villains. All the other villains were jokes next to Bane. He got his ass kicked by valley cause of venom. Bane has a lot to draw from, his origin story would be enough to make a great movie

Bane is a D-list villain, became a joke soon after getting butt whooped by a guy in a mechanical bat-suit. As a comic character he doesn't really have much to draw on. He only really has a Knightfall(a popular story) he hasn't been a threat to Batman since Bane of Demon(where he was just a pawn. Most writers don't really know what to do with him and as a result has been fading away in obscurity ever since, its sad but its true. And Bane is not as dark as other villains, the Joker is way more threatening then Bane ever was since he's unpredictable, and much more ambitious hence why he his Batman's greatest enemy.

Hopefully Nolan's take can restore the character back to prominent villain status in the comics.

Also Nolan's Bane is going to be vastly different from the comics, expect a more human take then in the comics.

I mostly agree with the guy that posted before me that Bane really is just side-villain material.

Intelligence isn't really an integral part of the character as much imagined by many, and at the character's core he is still just a musclemen that can physically overpower Batman more than intellectually overpower him. People are going to be in for a rude awakening in July 2012 when they see Nolan's take is vastly different they they would have liked from the comics.

Bane is a the type of character the works best as some sort of pawn or henchmen for someone with more ambitious goals(Ra's) Even Bruce Timm made similar use of him in the animated series(he was a hired gun by Thorne to get Batman)

IMHO there are much more interesting villains in the Batman mythos that are more worthy of sliver-screen treatment than Bane of all of people like Riddler, and Hugo Strange and Black Mask.

But I'm sure Hardy will do fine in the role, but lets be honest the fact that Hardy has been cast(when he is much shorter than the comics Bane, even shorter than Bale) and the fact that just when he was announced Nolan made a press statement saying they'll give a ''unique interpretation'' to Bane it hints at a much more radical translation of the character from comics to screen.

Anyone doubting this, just wait for more info to released, and wait till they see the film next year.

For Dark Knight Rises, I 'm expecting his role to be somewhat similar to the episode of the New adventures Batman episode ''Over the edge''in which he is enlisted to help the Gotham police department to capture Batman, and bring him to justice.

I agree that Bane without venom was weak and just a glorified sideman, but cmon, when he was addicted to Venom people like Joker and Riddler were just puppets that he played with and never came close to what Bane did, basically putting Batman out of business and taking over entire Gotham along with its mob gangs. I disagree Bane is good as henchmen, why? His personality totally denies Bane listening to anyone. I hated it when he teamed up with Ras because it was so unlike Bane that I cant even describe it. I guess someone may explain it that without Venom bane was different, but even without the venom addiction the guy had a big temper and rich personality. he could never take crap from anyone. Once he turned against Ras and brutally murdered every single one of his League pawns and told challenged Ras, that was the Bane I knew.

I think that some fans take swipe at Bane just to prepare the background for Nolan's different take. In order to excuse Nolan's (possible) reinvention, fans want to discredit Bane as if hes bad and needed changes. If Bane was so bad, Nolan wouldnt have chosen him from so many villains

bane outwitted Batman who played like Bane wanted to. Bane orchestrated an elaborate scheme and manipulated everyone to break batman mentally first, then weaken him physically and break him physically. The guy has plenty to him

Yeah that was because Bane was being introduced and keep in mind that he didn't fight Bat's directly until he was all worn out, and he never got him mentally, Bruce was just really tired and stressed out from all the work he had to do rounding up all these villains back to Arkham.

Bane really does work best as a henchmen, it worked excellently for the New adventures of Batman episode 'Over the Edge' with him being allied with the Gotham Police department to help hunt down Batman( which I assume Rises will take a similar route with him. In fact he only was the main villain once in the comics, all other media aside from that his usage has primarily been a side-villain. I mean even in Arkham asylum game where Joker was the main-villain, he was reduced to being a pawn.

Ironically his most famous story is also his starting point of his decline, with that batman in a bat-suit beating Bane to near death immediately after doing perhaps his most famous thing he'll ever be known for, he's a good character but he's a victim of bad writing, and many writers lacking much interest to take the character much farther.

I wish it wasn't so, but its true.

Also Bane never really out-witted Batman, he mostly cheated and took advantage of a weaken Batman. But in 'Bane of the Demon' Bat's mocks him and calls him a pawn and 'errand boy', and kicks his ass pretty badly.

One wonders if Bane ever did take on Batman without his scheme would he still be able to 'break the bat?

To add to that, there really isn't any really much material to draw from him, he has very few stories with them only being Knightfall and Bane of Demon and some other stories that portray him as a anti-hero(looking for Ra's Lazarus pits to destroy them or him looking for his dad. Aside from that nothing much, I mean the guy worked for Lex Luthor once as a hired body-guard, or security in No Man's Land. He doesn't really have a wealth of material to draw from like villains like Ra's Al ghul or the Joker, or Two-Face. Which makes me positive that he will be have the most significant tampering then any of Nolan adapted villain from the comics before.

Also just because Nolan choose Bane for this story does not necessarily mean he choose him because of his character, he most likely chose him because he serves the plot, and his muscled angle might serve the plot in more intenser ways. But evidence of this Bane about to differ from his comics in more ways then one Nolan's very words himself

“I am delighted to be working with Tom again and excited to watch him bring to life our new interpretation of one of Batman’s most formidable enemies.”-Christopher Nolan -Latimes 2011

The key words are 'our' and 'new'. The Joker, Two-face, Scarecrow never really had this statement had this and their characters while changed, remained somewhat the same at essence.

Bane is going to be super-different from either the Schumacher version and comics/cartoon version.

He will still have that competitive rivalry with Bat's but it will manifest in a radically different way the seen before.

Oh cmon, you say Nolan picked Bane just for his muscles? You know how many strong villains are there? And besides, Bane was just muscles in B&R and everyone hated that, from fans to the comic writers because Bane was all about being smart and clever. In Knightfall there were moments when Batman doubted himself and even screamed out loud when he was alone. Bane was getting to him emotionally. After his back was broken there were several issued when Bruce just didnt have motivation

Bane is probably the most developed villain of them all. How many villains can say they have an entire extra long issue devoted to their life? Bane speaks 6 languages, read more books than any man alive, trained his entire life, he has exceptional mental and meditating abilities and on top of that is stronger than any naturally borught up man. The extra dimension in the character is that he is exceptionally cruel and cold and is completely dependant to drugs. Batman called him pawn and other names because he knew that this is gonna upset Bane who has a large ego and normally wouldnt listen to anyone. The Bane after Knightfall was a joke and totally inconsistent with what he was before but only because he was clean from Venom and his personality changed. He became an antihero and is an antihero to this day. But when he was a villain he accomplished what no one else did and ruled Gotham. It was only his dependence on drugs that was his downfall. The original Bane would break a neck of anyone who would disagree with him without flinching and would kill anyone who would look at him in a funny way. He made all the other villains look like just a practice and they were all just weak players in his game

Thats why Nolan chose the character. Its because Nolan's movies are intelligent and Bane is both intelligent and also has a personal thing for Batman since childhood

''But when he was a villain he accomplished what no one else did and ruled Gotham.''

..........Black Mask? Also many of Bat's villains have separate goals then ruling a corrupt city. Joker is just a killer, Ra's wants half of the world population wiped outTwo-face is all about duality, Riddler wants to test Batman primarily.

Most of his intelligence won't be in the movie, The Nolan verse usually tones down some of that stuff the note-worthy example is Batman himself, who is not even really a detective, he's much more like a normally intelligent person, then an outright genius in everything like in the comics.

Most of that stuff with the photographic memory is pretty much guaranteed to not to survive with Nolan's take on the character, most of that stuff isn't really a part of the character as much as his brute force. Unlike Batman, he hasn't really demonstrated his intellect, only off panel with vague mentioning of that feature from characters like Ra's Al Ghul. I'm not saying he'll be all muscle but Nolan has clearly got vastly different ideas about what he's going to do with the character then many expect.

Originally , Bane in the comics appeared when Batman had more control of the city and was more of an established protector, and a symbol of fear and justice in Gotham, which prompts Bane to break that symbol in Knightfall and then take over Gotham.

But with them using Bane in Bat's early years of vigilantism where he's clearly an outlaw on the run from the police I imagine the use of Bane in Rises is going to play out similar to his use in various other media either as a pawn, or hired muscle most notably the animated Batman episode ''Over the Edge'' that had him affiliated with the Gotham Police department and served as the muscle that assisted hunt on Bat's. Now I'm sure he'll be smarter then his Batman and Robin counterpart, but don't expect him to be the same Bane faithfully reinterpreted for film but rather a different kind of Bane, maybe a better version of him than the comics.

Bane will be redeemed in 2012 from his Batman and Robin counterpart, but not in the way you expect.

I now concede, not because you actually put up an convincing argument(your clearly one of the ones that think Nolan is going to automatically make him the clever tactician from the comics ) but be prepared for severe changes to the character in 2012 of July.

I'm just saying expect something drastically different.

Hardy will do fine in the role, he's an actor I know will do great, and Bane will be a great villain but the ugly truth is still that Nolan and Co. don't really have much material to work with the character, which leaves room for more interpretation than previously adapted characters from the comics.

I agreee with the guy above, I would love if Rises went the way ''Over the Edge'' and got Bane to go after Batman through his connections with the GPD. It could make for an interesting plot for the third film

Also the guy above: As you explained about this Bane ''being different'' I don't see any real difference to how Nolan is going to adapt the character from what he did before on Ra's Al Ghul, the Joker.

Ra's in Begins was hardly the same Ra's from the comic books, he did not have a daughter, and he wasn't an eco-terrorist that wanted half the world population wiped out for his vision of a utopia. He was an extreme vigilante that was behind Gotham's depression that created Joe Chill and thus created Batman Note: Bane or Catwoman may have something to do with him in the Nolan's series.

The Joker in the Dark Knight was vastly different from his comics counterpart in which did not fall in a vat of chemicals, neither did he have any affiliation with a gang called the ''Redhood''and that and he has scars on his face, and is much more an radical anarchist with a goal in mind rather than a straight-up mass-murderer who usually kills for no real reason like in the comics version.

Also Two-face was created the explosion that killed Rachael, not through acid poured on his face and he isn't schizophrenic like his comics counterpart.

I don't really care for Bane, personally I think Hugo Strange(who precedes the Joker) will pop-up and be involved in his creation so he can get Batman much like he used Max Cort and hypnotized him to carry out his deeds.

Guys, the truth is we know next to nothing about what Bane will be like in TDKR. He might be a super genius or he might be not. At this point its pure speculation based on nothing more than Nolan saying that he will have a new interpretation which can mean anything. So far all the villains had some kind of interpretation

Quick note to posters: when you refer to Schumaker as "gay", please note that the comic books had a child sidekick with pixie shoes, shaved legs and a golden cape long prior to Schumaker or Adam West. Stop spitting into the wind.